NEGLECTED TAIRUA.

Thames Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 9618, 21 April 1900, Page 3

NEGLECTED TAIRUA.

(To the Editor.)

Sir: Just prior to the last) general election, the inhabitants of the Upper and Lower Tairua districts, who had long .patiently Buffered the neglect of both their Parliamentary and • .County representatives, had theirl fallen hopes considerably raised by the several aspiring candidates who made many promises, which were to be immediately fulfilled—if they were returned. The Government candidate, with the rest, promised much in the way of improved roads, urgently needed bridges, increased postal facilities and telephone communication between the Upper and Lower Landings. We are now entering up■>n the fifth month since Mr. Jackson Palmer successfully gained theOhinemuri seat, and our district still remains in the 1 same neglected state as af yore. The 1 Government grants that were to have been immediately expended upon urgent works in this particular portion of the electorate have apparently melted into thin air, and we are only aware that we are represented at Wellington in a vague sort of way —that is L , anything but satisfactory.- Roads we haye practically none, and there is only an indifferent bridle track between Puriri and the Upper Landing, while be^ tween the latter place and Tairua (although there is a good deal of traffic), the absence of bridges and the tendency of the track to- run through the adjacent swamps makes it totally impassable for foot passengers foi' fully seven months of the real*. Several of the Thames County Councillors paid our district a visit not long ago, and one* of them aftersvarda declared at a Council meeting that ho would not care to undertake the journey again for love or money. What further proof than that do we need as to the very bad state of our :'o-called roads? I have not yet heard of the said Councillor 1 undertaking to further our interests in the direction indicated; but, perhaps his own pet riding now absorbs the whole of his ittentipn. Besides, there are individuals whose brains refuse to enter'ain more than one idea at m time-— vhich doubtless accounts: for . the many lapses that individual members of our governing bodies are responsible for. At the last County Council alection the ratepayers in the Tairua district were practically debarred from exercising their 1 privilege of voting owing to the nearest polling booth being at Puriri—some 22 and 30 miles distant from the Upper and Lower townships respectively—with bad roads to traverse 1 into the bargain. No wonder the ratepayers in this district complain bitterly when their many wants are ignored and their interests generally neglected by iieir County Council and Parliamentary (niis)representatives alike. More vnon.—l am, etc., ■ STRAIGHT OUT. Tairua., April 18.